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Brickman and Campbell coined the term "Hedonic Treadmill" in
their essay "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society"
(1971), which appeared in M.H. Apley, ed., ' 'Adaptation Level
Theory: A Symposium, New York: Academic Press, 1971, pp
287–302. The theory has consequences for understanding happiness as both an
individual and a societal goal.

The concept was modified by Michael Eysenck, a British psychology
researcher during the late nineties, to refer to the
hedonic treadmill theory which compares the pursuit of happiness to a person on a treadmill, who has to keep
working just to stay in the same place.

Contents

Concise
definition

The tendency of a person to remain at a relatively stable level
of happiness despite a change in fortune or the achievement of
major goals. According to the hedonic treadmill, as a person makes
more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results
in no permanent gain in happiness.

Theory

Humans rapidly adapt to their current situation, becoming
habituated to the good or the bad. We are more sensitive to our
relative status: both that which we recently have and that which we
perceive others to enjoy.

Bottan and Perez Truglia in "Deconstructing the Hedonic
Treadmill" (2008) propose a model to explain the emergence of
adaptive stimuli. They also test their hypotheses running dynamic
happiness regressions.

Details

Despite the fact that external forces are constantly changing
our life goals, happiness for most people is a relatively constant
state. Regardless of how good things get, people always report
about the same level of happiness.

The theory that the baseline of an individual's happiness is at
least partially genetic is bolstered by the fact that identical twins are usually equally prone
to depression.[1]

The hedonic treadmill theory explains the oft-held observation
that rich people are no happier than poor people, and that those
with severe money problems are sometimes quite happy. The theory
supports the argument that money does not buy happiness and that
the pursuit of money as a way to reach this goal is futile. Good
and bad fortunes may temporarily affect how happy a person is, but
most people will end up back at their normal level of
happiness.